Creature Profile

The addax is a large antelope with long and thin spiral horns with two and sometimes three twists. Its coat is grayish brown in the winter and changes to nearly white in the summer. There is a patch of black hair on its forehead and it has a black tuft on its tail. The average length of the addax is around 5 feet and it has a shoulder height of around 3 feet. The addax is a desert creature and hardly ever needs water except from the drops of water it gets from eating plants.

The addax prefers to travel through the desert at night in search of sparse vegetation in the desert that manages to grow during rainfall. They are able to thrive in the desert with no water source. They are only found in northeastern Niger, northern Chad, and along the Mauritanian/Mali border. Little is known about its reproductive biology in the wild. It is believed that the female gives birth to one calf after a gestation period of 8 to 9 months.

There are only a few hundred left in the wild. Excessive hunting for its flesh and hide seems to be the main cause of decline for the addax. And although it is legally protected, hunting is still a threat. There are currently more than 1000 addax held in captivity in the US, Europe and the Middle East. There are reportedly 600 addax managed in captive breeding programs.

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